The 100 Best Spider-Man Stories

Hi and welcome to Retro-Sanctuary's Top 100 Spider-Man Stories. The wallcrawler has been a fan favourite for comic enthusiasts the world over for quite some time now, first appearing and rising to prominence back in the 1960s! I myself became a huge fan as a bookish 10 year old back in the early 90s and have remained with old Spidey ever since, here's what I consider the best 100 stories.

Enjoy!

100

Carnage

-Amazing Spider-Man #361-#363

This is the storyline that introduces the classic villain "Carnage", a new kind of hyper-violent 90s foe for the Wall-Crawler to face who's level of cruelty had not been seen before in Spider-Man comics. The plot has Venom giving birth to another symbiote that bonds to Eddie's psychotic cell mate, Cletus Kasady. The story includes the first of many crowd-pleasing team-ups between Spider-Man and Venom as they try to track down Carnage and put a stop to his bloody rampage.

Moving Up is an amusing and fun done-in-one issue set shortly after Pete and Mary Jane's marriage. It has a very drunk Spider-Man getting into a fight with Jason Macendale's Hobgoblin after being forced into leaving his own moving out party to deal with the crook, even though he'd already consumed a considerable amount of spiked punch! One of the best "silly" issues for Spidey

Get a rare look into the everyday life of the typical super-criminal with this single-issue story concerning a bar where famous crooks like to congregate to tell stories of their exploits, gamble and shoot some pool. Its a great, quirky issue that tries to do something new by showing how the other side lives.

A new, seemingly invincible supervillain with endless powers and abilities turns up on the scene and unfortunately he not only blames Spidey for the death of his son, but is also completely unconcerned with any collateral damage he causes in pursuing his grudge. Memorable story from Paul Jenkins that keeps the reader guessing.

Flash becomes worried after Betty Brant goes missing for two weeks. Suspecting a sinister cult that preys on people at their weakest moments to be responsible, both he and Pete take in upon themselves to investigate, only to find that Betty has been completely brain-washed and doesn't want to leave. An inventive story from Peter David that even highlights some authentic confidence tricks like so-called "Psychic Surgery".

Pete's Christmas party gets interrupted when trouble strikes at the Metropolitan Museum of art and he's sent to take the news pictures. He arrives there unaware that Mary Jane has not only tagged along, but has also gotten herself possessed by the spirit of Red Sonja! The two have to team up to take out an ancient sorcerer who's recently returned to the land of the living. The creative team here is Chris Claremont and John Byrne, known for their legendary run on the X-Men during the 1970s, Byrne's artwork is excellent as always and he lives up to his reputation as one of the quintessential artists of the era.

Its Valentines day and Pete's accidentally double booked, worse still he can't turn up for either date because he's too busy fighting the Vulture! A nice and quirky done-in-one issue from Darwyn Cooke, one of the greatest artists working during the period, and one who never fails to imbue his work with no small measure of charm.

Spider-Man chooses to have his powers removed once and for all? The pressure of being a costumed hero has bared down on Pete for years and when a Dr Turner shows up offering a way for him to become a normal person again he jumps for it, but does the good Doctor have ulterior motives? A pretty good three issue action story that has a defenceless Spidey fighting to regain his powers (with a lot of help from Black Cat in one of her most notable appearances) against tough odds.

A young Black inventor named Hobie Brown is tired of not being noticed or given a chance to prove himself and decides to use his inventions to orchestrate a robbery that he intends to foil, thereby making himself look like a hero. Unfortunately things don't go according to plan for Hobie and he's soon in way over his head. A good issue from Lee and Romita Sr during their civil rights period, an era in the late 60s where they attempted to comment on some of the issues of the time. I think generally they did a pretty good job with this, with Hobie being a likeable, if misguided character who is easy to identify with and understand. The story also shows us that Pete's not just focused on blind punishment, he's not averse to other options (such as leniency) if he thinks they will be more conducive to a positive outcome.

Here we finally get to learn all of the secrets and back story of Ezekiel, the mysterious new character who was introduced at the beginning of J. Michael Straczynski's run. The plot has New York being infested by a swarm of supernatural Spiders whilst Ezekiel tries to convince Pete into taking a trip with him to South America. An interesting story with high quality and distinctive art from John Romita Jr.